Today's young veterans seek a new normal

Friday

Jun 16, 2017 at 2:01 AM

By Sharon E. SiegelFor the Gazette

Finding a new normal has been a struggle for U.S. Marine Corporal Colin A. Tunney, who says he understands why young veterans are often slow to join community and veteran organizations when they return home from war. Tunney says give them some time and hopefully each will find a way to fit in with family and community life again.

“When you wake up to gunfire surrounding your base every morning and during morning prayer, never knowing when you might hit a mine or come under attack daily, it’s not easy to come home and resume the life you once knew,” Tunney said. "You see people driving around not being constantly alert; laughing, smiling, joking, just having a normal life – when normal isn’t normal anymore. It’s hard to find a way to fit back in."

Tunney began his service as a Marine in August 2006, just two months after graduating from Port Jervis High School. The events of Sept. 11, 2001 had triggered his desire to assist his nation in the war on terror, and he became focused on military service while still a middle and high school student.

“I thought how can you come over here and fly planes into our buildings and not think we will answer to that?” Tunney recalled.

As a young Marine, Tunney served in Iraq, and then Afghanistan. In addition to fighting the enemy, they fought rugged terrain and temperatures ranging from the high 120s in Iraq to low teens in Afghanistan.

“I woke up a few mornings sleeping in a foxhole with frost on my gear. The bugs were pretty much like here, but I used to have wild hedgehogs come and try to eat our leftover MRE scraps,” Tunney said with a smile.

While in Iraq, Tunney volunteered to be lead vehicle driver for his Convoy Security Team (CST). They were assigned to escort goods and people to different bases, such as Taqqadum, Fallujah, Ramadi, Baghdad, and Baghdaddi. Tunney was awarded for traveling more than 5,000 miles in and for having volunteered to drive in the most dangerous position in the convoy. His lieutenant colonel noted the expertise and care shown by the young Marine in leading 25 successful missions without ever hitting a single mine.

In Afghanistan, Tunney’s battalion was among the many that came under fire for several days in the Battle of Nawzad. They, along with infantry and other NATO units, successfully completed the mission to secure the city.

They were next involved in the Battle of Marjah, also known as Operation Moshtarak. This was an intense military operation, spearheaded by Marines, which included more than 15,000 troops from many countries. The combined effort successfully claimed the longtime Taliban-held city, but with a heavy toll in injuries and loss of life.

“Our sergeant major, Ray Mackey, the highest ranked man in the unit, lost his legs in this battle,” Tunney recalled. “Another, Lance Cpl. Justin Wilson, was killed when he stepped on an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). At 21, when I came home I spent several years trying to find a way to leave the daily life we shared in war behind, but nothing worked for quite a long time.”

Tunney spent a year working in organic farming in Rock Hill, then moved to Long Island to study music, a lifelong love of his, under the GI Bill.

“I was in class with 18-year-olds that had just graduated from high school, and I had nothing in common with any of them or their college lifestyles. My professors tried to helped, allowing me to leave the classroom for ‘breaks’, but being away from home didn’t work either. It was too fast paced in Long Island, and I knew I had to move back home. I was cheating my family, being selfish and depriving of them of not having to worry just because I wasn’t comfortable.”

Now 28 and living in his hometown of Sparrowbush again, Tunney has found his way into veteran organizations and service as a community volunteer. He is especially pleased to be a charter member of a group currently completing a major veteran’s memorial project in Sparrowbush.

He has completed an Associate in Science degree in criminal justice from SUNY Orange. He chuckled as he noted that even with all of his military experience and a degree qualifying him for a law enforcement career, he has found his current job as a union carpenter most rewarding.

“We just completed the concrete footings for the new Sullivan County Jail. There is something very rewarding in seeing something that you have helped build and knowing that it will be there for many years to come,” Tunney said.